Coffee and Huggbees

06 May, 2007

Golden Week (So Far)

Golden Week is a series of holidays organized so that people get about a week off work. Not in my case, though. Monday is a holiday, then Thursday and Friday are both holidays. So I had work for two days in the middle of the week, which seems odd.

After the concert on Sunday, Monday was spent...I'm not sure. I don't think I did much that day. Maybe just hung around the apartment area. Probably. Tuesday I went to work, and didn't accomplish anything since I hadn't brought my laptop with me. Tuesday night, we had a going away party for Diana, the trainee from Canada, so right after work, Caitlin and I left to go to Nagoya City University. We ate a lot, I drank a lot, and it was all around great fun. I nursed the idea of continuing to eat and drink, and the only person that was as adamant about it as I was, was George, the trainee from the UK. So we say our goodbyes/convince people to meet with us at the bar, and Caitlin and I start to follow George's friend to, what I thought, was the bar. After walking quite a distance, we realize that he's going to the station, not the bar. A 30 minute wandering walk later, as well as multiple phone calls to find out where everyone is, we finally get back to the campus. We start towards the bar, when I suddenly decide that I am pretty tired. So instead, we came back home. At this point, I had also decided that I had no interest in going to work the next day, so I slept in.

On Wednesday, Caitlin left Nagoya for Kyoto. I don't remember accomplishing much that day, either. I rented Children of Men, which was ok. I guess.

Thursday morning, I woke up early so that I could get ready, go to the atm to withdraw money, grab some coffee, and be at Nagoya station by 10 to meet people to go to Hamamatsu. Instead, what actually happened, was I woke up, got ready, went to the convenience store, and couldn't withdraw any money. Frustrated, I left for the station to try the atm's there from other banks. None of them worked. I finally had to borrow money for train fare, while I sent out emails to everyone I knew, trying to find out why I couldn't get any money.

We arrive in Hamamatsu, where we try more atms, without success. After a call to the bank, I find out that I can only use my atm card at very specific places for the next few days, because of the holiday. One such place being a convenience store. So now we alter the plan to finding this specific convenience store. We do, but they don't have an atm. An hour later, we finally find a proper atm, and I restock myself with money. We then go to the kite festival.

It was a lot of fun. Drunk people flying and retrieving giant kites; food and music everywhere; local beers. Tired, we went to catch the bus back to the station, but the line was incredibly long. Not feeling too keen on standing in line for two hours, I suggest we go to the beach. So we walked around the beach for a while, eat ice cream, and eventually catch the bus back. I had planned on staying in an internet cafe for the night, since I had wanted to see the area some more. This changed after walking around the city all morning, and not finding anything of particular interest. So we left for Nagoya that evening.

Not one to enjoy going home at a sensible hour, I spent the train ride emailing people if they wanted to get together that night. Which we do. A $240 bar tab later, we meet some people at a karaoke bar, then head to a new bar. Having already resigned to stay out for the rest of the night, and convincing those with me to do the same, we sat around talking for most of the night. I eventually started falling asleep, which entails hugging the nearest person to me and using them as a crutch to support my head. At about 3:30, we decide to walk the few kilometers back to someone's apartment, and sleep there until the first trains start. I sleep on Seko's floor until 8, when I return home to shower, and sleep for the rest of the morning.

Caitlin was supposed to return on Friday afternoon, but without her having access to a cellphone or often available internet, it was hard to find out exactly when. I had an appointment at 5 that I had to go to, and by 4, I hadn't heard anything. Not wanting to have her locked out of the apartment, and only with one key, I stuck the key in an envelope, and taped it in the mail slot; disguising it as mail, although taping it so it didn't actually fall all the way through the slot and into my apartment. I get a call from a payphone at about 6, luckily before we started, and explain the key situation. I hurry home afterwards to find that the key hadn't slipped into the apartment, and that everything worked out. Curry and Little Miss Sunshine for all.

International atms are really hard to find, and with the holiday, the few that exist, are usually closed. Caitlin needed to access her bank in the US, so we spent the morning looking up where the closest international atm was. Ofcourse, it's a bus and subway ride away, so after coffee, we go to Sakae. We find it, do some record/toy/dirt cheap clothes store shopping, and meet with Seko for dinner.

All in all, not a bad Golden Week. I still haven't been to a public bath yet, which has been one of my goals this trip. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get naked in front of strangers before I leave in a few weeks.


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